SCHOLASTIC BOOST
Prime minister launches billions in student support, defends Liberals’ fiscal record
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his government’s fiscal record on Thursday as it launched several new programs promising billions of dollars in support for students.
The moves came one day after Canada saw its credit rating downgraded by one major agency, over the massive increase in government spending meant to help Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The launch of the Canada Student Service Grant, which is the centrepiece of Ottawa’s new support to students, comes two months after it was first announced by Trudeau and just in the nick of time for younger people who haven’t been able to find summer jobs.
Back in April, Trudeau announced plans for the grant, a way of giving students chances to earn some money while volunteering in “national service” activities related to fighting the pandemic.
Eligible students are to receive grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to support the costs of post-secondary education in the fall, with the amount of each grant dependent on the time the recipient devotes to volunteer work.
The grant program is part of a multi-pronged, $9-billion investment by the federal government to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic on young people that also includes money for thousands more summer-job placements and internships.
“There are fewer jobs and many co-op, internship and community-service placements because of the pandemic,” Trudeau said during one of his regular COVID-19 news conference outside his Ottawa home.
Youth Minister Bardish Chagger later acknowledged that students will be able to access more than one program at the same time even as she defended the two-month delay in rolling out the measures.
“We really wanted to ensure that we put the checks and balances in place and that the program would actually deliver meaningful opportunities but also be safe for young people to participate given the COVID context,” Chagger told The Canadian Press.
As Trudeau was promising more support for students as part of Ottawa’s broader effort, he faced questions about his government’s handling of the country’s finances.
The questions were sparked by one of the three largest credit-rating agencies in the United States, Fitch Ratings, which announced Wednesday that it was downgrading Canada’s credit rating from triple-A — the highest possible score — to AA+. Fitch blamed the move on “the deterioration of Canada’s public finances” due to the COVID-19
pandemic, adding public health measures needed to slow the spread of the illness and depressed oil prices “will cause a severe recession” in Canada this year.
Trudeau defended his government’s fiscal record and was unapologetic about having spent billions during the pandemic.
“We came into this situation with one of the best balance sheets in the G7, and we put that to work for people,” Trudeau said.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer blasted the Liberals for having overseen years of deficit spending in the lead up to the pandemic, which he argued was a major contributing factor in Fitch’s decision.